Most people would agree that no, monkeys are not people.
However, Steven M. Wise, president and counsel of the Nonhuman
Rights Project, believes that chimpanzees are enough like people
that some of the fundamental rights to which people are entitled
should be guaranteed to them as well -- namely, the right to be
free.
These aren't just any chimpanzees. These are two chimpanzees,
Hercules and Leo, both 8 years old and both used for research at
Stony Brook University in New York. In a court proceeding ordered
by Justice Barbara Jaffe for Stony Brook to defend its detention of
the chimpanzees, Wise pointed out that chimpanzees, and other great
apes, don't live based only on instinct, but are capable of
planning and acting in ways that help determine their future. Wise
also argued that the chimps are self-aware, understand the passage
of time, and possess math skills and can understand language. As
such, "These animals are indeed autonomous, self-determining beings
… they are the kinds of beings who can remember the past and plan
ahead for the future, which is one of the reasons imprisoning a
chimp is at least as bad and maybe worse than imprisoning a
person."
For these reasons, the Nonhuman Rights Project is fighting on
the side of the chimpanzees, seeking to free Hercules and Leo from
Stony Brook through a writ of habeas corpus, a mechanism
through which unlawful imprisonment may be challenged. While
habeas corpus is a long established procedure used to
challenge unlawful imprisonment of human beings, it has never been
applied to any other living creature.
The state argued that chimpanzees are not entitled to the same
rights as human beings because they cannot fulfill other duties
required of them by human laws, such as bearing moral
responsibility in our society, saying, "They are just not equipped
the same way as human beings to be members of society." The state
also employed the slippery slope argument, warning against opening
a floodgate.
The Nonhuman Rights Project's ultimate goal is to free the
captive chimpanzees (along with others) and move them to a
sanctuary where they can live as naturally as possible amongst
other chimpanzees.
It has long been accepted that chimpanzees possess many
characteristics originally believed to be exclusive to human
beings. So the question is, do chimpanzees have enough human
characteristics to be granted some human rights? Chimpanzees form
highly complex social relationships, and different groups display
different cultural behavior. Chimpanzees have been observed
mourning, laughing, and solving puzzles for entertainment. Natalie
Prosin, executive director of the Nonhuman Rights Project, has
clarified the group's position by stating that the project does not
believe that animals are people, but that chimpanzees are
"autonomous beings, who are self-aware and self-directed," and that
the project is not asking for broad human rights to be granted to
the chimpanzees, but is simply seeking their freedom. Is freedom
exclusive to human beings, or will Hercules and Leo prove
otherwise?